The Central Research Network for Extraordinary Celestial Phenomena (CENAP) is a point of contact for people in Germany who are looking for a scientific explanation for what they observe in the sky.
CENAP director Hansjürgen Köhler says they have never received as many reports as they do at the moment: "We receive between three and six report's a day. Without question, we're the busiest reporting centre in the German-speaking world." By August 2026 he and his team had cleared up some 14,000 cases.
Köhler is an amateur astronomer; it all started "with youthful recklessness."
"We were working at the observatory and expanding our knowledge there. Back then, lots of calls were coming in and the observatory was getting fed up with it. That prompted us to take a closer look at the whole UFO subject."
As an 11-year-old he watched the moon landing on television. It left a deep impression on him and laid the foundations for his interest. "If I'd known back then what was coming, I wouldn't have done it; there really were a few annoying years, but these days I enjoy it because we can give people a sensible explanation."
